Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that can perform processing of a plurality of users in parallel, and a method for controlling the information processing apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that includes a personal authentication device using human body communication and can perform various types of processing in parallel, including personal authentication of a plurality of users.
Description of the Related Art
When a user uses an information processing apparatus such as a printer and a multifunctional peripheral (MFP) having various functions such as a copy function, a scanner function, a facsimile (FAX) function, and a print function, personal authentication is usually performed first and then an operation is permitted.
There are various methods for personal authentication, including a method in which a user inputs a password and a method that uses biometric information as authentication information. Examples of the biometric information include a person's fingerprints and vein pattern.
A user may own an integrated circuit (IC) card in which the user's identifier (ID) and password are stored. An authentication system may read the ID and password to perform authentication (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-178034).
In any of such authentication methods, the number of users to be authenticated at a time is limited to one. A single operation input unit provided on the main body of the information processing apparatus operates by accepting only the operation of the one authenticated user.
An authentication technique using human body communication has been recently put to practical use (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-268614 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-27095). According to the authentication technique, if a user who carries a mobile terminal containing authentication information touches a reception unit of an authentication device with a hand or foot, the mobile terminal and the authentication device can perform transmission and reception with each other by using the user's human body as a communication path. The authentication information in the mobile terminal can thus be transmitted to the authentication device for user identification and authentication.
To perform personal authentication using human body communication, the user carrying the mobile terminal has only to touch a specific area of the authentication device. The user's operation is thus extremely simple. The authentication information, which is confidential information, is directly transmitted to the authentication device via the human body only at the time of contact. This makes information leakage less likely to occur and ensures high security. Such an authentication method is expected to become prevalent in the future.
The authentication processing for personal authentication using human body communication is performed simultaneously with the user's simple single-touch operation. This allows authentication processing and login of a plurality of users to be quickly performed in succession. Thereby, this authentication method is expected to be applied to simultaneous parallel use of a single information processing apparatus by a plurality of users (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-262454).